Jake lifted his hands in the air and then slapped them down on the bar top. “Or you can let them run the tests, get nailed for Jax’s murder, and go to prison. That’s better.”
Veda took hold of the bar’s edge and leaned down, dropping her head with a moan. She hated to admit it, but she knew Jake was right. No matter how ill-equipped she was, how far fetched Hope’s idea was, or how big a risk this was, she was out of options.
Standing tall, every bone in her body sagged at once as she sighed heavily. “All I wanted was to come home and exact a little revenge in peace. What the fuck is my life right now? This is crazy.”
“You can still slice and dice to your heart’s content,” Jake shrugged. “After you ensure you’ll be a free woman long enough to do so. It’ll be one night. Get the keycard, get inside, get out. Then it’s on to Liam O’Dair.” Jake nodded at the television where they were still covering Liam. “I hear he’s not going to waste any time getting back out into the social scene. Word on the street is that he’ll be attending an engagement party at the end of the week. Perfect place to get him drunk and get him alone.”
Veda nibbled the inside of her lip, her eyes in a faraway place. “If I’m going to switch the samples, it has to be tonight.”
“Hope already said she’s ready to be the lookout whenever you are.”
She gave a halfhearted shrug. “You’re right. I have no choice.”
“Do you want an oral sedative to put in Linc’s next drink? To ensure he stays good and knocked out tonight?”
“So now you’re suggesting I spike a cop’s drink? I’m trying to minimize the problems here, Jake, not compound them.”
“But compounding problems is what you do best, bitch. You’re the only woman I know who can take a plan for killing all her enemies and turn it into a broken engagement, a career on the rocks, a cat and mouse with the police, a kidnapping, and a damn love triangle. All in less than a year.”
“There is no love triangle.”
“Oh, please.”
Right on cue, the bell above the bar’s door rang, and Gage stepped inside wearing dark washed jeans, white slip-on sneakers and a white t-shirt with a camel colored suede jacket. Veda drew in a breath as wisps of sunlight flitted through the door behind him and surrounded him like the angel he was. She hadn’t missed his new casual manner of dress recently, and couldn’t deny the things it was doing to her.
Lingering in the doorway, Gage gave her a soft smile as he dropped his car keys in his jacket pocket. He let his eyes travel the bar, presumably to make sure no one he knew was there, before reclaiming her eyes. Licking his plush pink lips, he gave a soft nod towards the back of the bar, where the bathrooms and the storage hallway were, while moving away from the door.
Veda and Jake watched him cross the bar.
He gave her one last look over his shoulder as he disappeared around the back corner, and Veda threw down her towel. “Dante, can I take five?”
Dante looked up from the stack of receipts and calculators before him, a pen trapped between his teeth. He spoke around it, voice muffled. “Go ‘head.” He snatched the pen out of his mouth. “Matter of fact, take lunch. Get it out of the way before the five o’clock rush.”
“Thanks…” Fluffing her curls, Veda made her way out of the bar while giving Jake a look.
“Get it in, girl, get it in…” Jake purred, giving Veda a suggestive look, his eyes running her snug black t-shirt and black booty shorts as she circled around the bar.
She picked up a runaway lime slice and threw it at him as she moved.
He dodged it with a chuckle.
As she crossed the bar, Veda felt Linc’s eyes on her and couldn’t help looking toward his table. Both him and his mother caught her gaze. Grace waved, but Linc gave no such pleasantry. He lifted one scarred eyebrow, and the corner of his lip soon joined in, lifting high as well.
Veda waved back at Grace all while finding herself, once again, bemused by Linc. Of course, he hadn’t missed the fact that she was following Gage around a dark corner, and he was a grown man, so he knew very well what they planned to do behind that dark corner. But why the irritation in his blazing green eyes? It had been Linc who’d orchestrated her reunion with Gage in his apartment. Now he was angry that she was following him to the back?
What the hell did that man want from her?
Or maybe, Veda thought as she moved, the annoyance on his face isn’t about Gage at all. Maybe she wasn’t as crazy as Jake had made her out to be minutes earlier. Maybe that gleam in Linc’s eye wasn’t jealousy, but something else.
What do you know, Detective Hill? Her mind screamed the words she knew she never could, as their eyes remained locked. I really should spike your drink tonight!
Veda blinked that thought away, horrified at herself as she entered the back hallway.
You really are spiraling into all-out madness, Vandyke. Had she grown so accustomed to sedating grown men against their will that she was actually considering doing the same to one of her closest friends? A friend who’d done nothing but protect her as best he could?
With no time to wrestle with what a horrible human being she was, Veda made her way down the dark hallway in the back and whispered. “Gage?”
She checked the bathrooms, the walk-in fridge, and even the back alley where the trash cans were. No Gage. Re-entering the building with a frown, she yelped softly when a hand flew out of the pantry closet and took her arm, pulling her in.
“Gage!” she beamed, immediately centered at the soft feel of his hands on her arms as she tumbled into the walk-in pantry with a soft giggle.
Gage slammed the door closed with a smile of his own, tugging her forward and taking her bottom lip between his. He moaned into a long kiss, stepping forward for every step she took back, only breaking the embrace when her back hit the wall on the other side of the pantry, next to a shelf of red wine.
She purred between each warm brush of his lips, trying to make sense of a mind that always grew muddled when he was this close. When the softness of his lips were trapped between hers, one after the other, rendering her unable to figure out which one tasted better. Which one she loved the most. The tip of her tongue dipped out before she could stop it, wetting his bottom lip, and everything faded away as she decided, at least for today, that his bottom lip was a little sweeter than the top. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Every inch of him was delicious to her.
Especially the part he pressed against her stomach. The part growing harder by the moment.
“I thought you weren’t off until five,” she spoke between each kiss, smiling as a wave of warmth rolled through her belly when he moved his lips to her neck.
He sucked ravenously, tongue smacking against her skin, leaving a wet patch that was instantly dried by his breath as he spoke. “I couldn’t bear spending another moment of my last day at the hospital without you.”
The heart that had been picking up speed as he sampled her neck stopped cold and Veda shoved him away.
He took her arm to stop himself from moving too far back, frowning. “Don’t do that, baby.”
She crossed her arms with furrowed brows and a trembling chin. “I thought we talked about this.”
“Sure.” He stepped closer, wagging his head back and forth, eyes rising to the ceiling as he considered her words. “If barking demands at me seconds after we finished having sex in the stairwell yesterday is your idea of talking…” His eyes fell to hers and lit up. “Then sure. I suppose we talked.”
Her lips pinched. “We agreed your plan was terrible. We agreed you were going to find another way.”
“I agreed to no such thing, and my plan isn’t terrible. It’s the only way to find out who did this to you, and our baby.”
She shrugged, crossing her arms tighter, eyebrows raised high. “I don’t want you to do it.”
“You’ve made yourself very clear.”
Veda breathed deep. She had made herself clear. And not just in the hospital stairwell the da
y before. Since the day he’d told her about the position he’d secured at Blackwater Cruises—and what it had cost him to do it—she’d spent every waking moment begging him not to take the position. Not to re-enter his fake arrangement with Scarlett Covington. Not to leave the hospital.
Not to leave her.
“I’m not leaving you, Veda.”
Her eyes widened as he damn near read her mind, voice weak as she responded. “Yes, you are.”
He tilted his head. “This will be our last chance to see each other for a while, and I don’t want it to be like this.” He reached out and dipped his finger into the front of her black apron. His eyes fell down her body and grew darker the lower they traveled. Her tight black t-shirt, with a scoop neck that teased her pert breasts. The black booty shorts, so tiny and snug they never failed to double her tips at the bar. Her shapely legs, freshly shaved and moisturized. His searing gaze stopped at her black sneakers before slowly climbing back up her chocolate legs, her rounded hips, and her taut waist, lingering on the low scoop neck of her top before finally meeting her eyes. “I want your spine bent back. I want your pussy on the verge of breaking my dick in half. I want you screaming in ecstasy, baby. I don’t want to fight.”
“What about what I want?”
He used his hold on her apron to pull her in.
Avoiding his eyes, Veda begrudgingly allowed him to pull her closer, forcing herself to stare at the stack of grains across the room and not his gorgeous, spit-shined face.
“We really can’t see each other?” she whispered, looking back up at him. “Ever?”
He leaned in, brushing the tips of their noses softly while uncrossing her arms and wrapping them around his waist. He stroked her arms gently once they were around him. “My parents will be watching me like a hawk, so at first and for a little while… no. No calls. No texts. No nothing, Veda.”
“I’m not doing this.” Her heartbeat picked up, and she stepped away, causing his hand to fall from her apron. She sidestepped him and went for the door, chest swelling when he followed.
Gage closed the space between them in seconds, placing his hand on the door just as she got the handle in her grip, using his weight to keep it closed. He zeroed in on her back, pressing his hardness into the folds of her ass and forcing her body against the door.
Her heaving breasts lifted as they smashed into the wood, and she pushed her eyes closed as every inch of her fell apart at his closeness. From behind, he took her waist, sending shockwaves roaring through her body with one simple touch.
He squeezed and then tugged, forcing her to face him.
She swiveled on her heels and looked up at him, gasping when his column came against her stomach the moment she did. Her throat felt uneven, and she knew it would make her voice shake, so she clenched her teeth for control as she looked up at him with wet eyes. “I’m not saying goodbye to you.”
“It’s not goodbye.” He ripped at the front tie in her apron. “It’s see you later. And I’d like a proper one, please.”
She didn’t look down as her apron tumbled to her feet, unable to tear her eyes from his. She heard some of the items inside fall out and clatter onto the concrete floor. Her lower belly clenched when his strong, soft fingers were on the button of her shorts next, popping them open before ripping down her zipper.
“I don’t want you back with Scarlett.” She pouted. “Even if it’s fake. I don’t want you going head to head with your family. Linc never shuts up about how dangerous they are.”
“Linc does a lot of talking and not a lot of closing. But I finish what I start, Veda, and somebody is going to pay for what they did to you. To our child. Period.” His hands circled her body, cupped her ass, and yanked her forward, sealing every inch of their heaving chests together. “Say goodbye to me.”
She whimpered as his strength brought her to her toes, wrapping her arms around his strong, pulsing shoulders, his suede jacket temporarily cooling the fire blazing under her skin. “I thought it wasn’t goodbye?”
His biceps flexed as he pulled her even higher onto her toes, lowering his head to brush his lips softly against hers.
Her hands sank into his hair. She gripped and pulled at the strands, but he held strong, the veins in his neck pulsing as he fought to keep his head level against her angry tugs.
“I just got you back,” she whispered, voice weakening. The borderline violent hold she had on his hair relaxed as he laid his forehead against hers. She whimpered as his hands left her ass and he snaked one arm around her waist, holding her up on her toes while using the other to cup her jaw.
He stroked the skin of her cheek with his thumb, his voice falling to a whisper. “You never lost me. Since the moment I laid eyes on you, your face has never left my head. And it never will.” He splayed his fingers as he moved them down her face, along her neck, stopping at her breasts just long enough to palm one before circling his touch around her body. Just like he’d requested minutes earlier, Veda’s spine arched against his fingers, his caress bringing her body to life with such fervor she worried he was moments from lighting her clothes on fire.
His hand slipped past the waistband of her shorts, loose now that they were undone, and wasted no time invading the waistband of her panties as well.
Her mouth fell open when they came skin to skin, his long fingers cupping the soft globes of her ass so greedily the tips actually reached her pulsing center, tapping against the wet, aching entry just enough to drive her crazy and make her clench for more.
He covered her mouth with his, drinking in the moan that fluttered from her lips.
Every inch of her body ebbed and yearned for him as they fell into a deep kiss. Gage drove his hand deeper into her shorts, and his middle finger sank into her wetness. She cried out into the kiss.
Mere seconds after her walls clenched around him, showing both their appreciation and their desperate need for more of his touch, he broke the kiss and sank to his knees, taking her waist and forcing her to face the door as he did.
“Oh God,” Veda whimpered, digging her nails into the wood door just as Gage hit his knees behind her and tore her shorts and panties down her legs.
With one hand busy making Wolverine marks on the door, she reached back with the other and buried it in his silky strands, mouth smashed against the door to muffle her scream as he spread her cheeks wide, and the warmth of his tongue dove into her wetness. He spread his lips wide over the aching bud and pleasure unfurled across her body with the speed and vigor of a forest fire.
As Gage got to work saying ‘see you later’, bestowing realms of ecstasy with his lips and tongue that left her speechless, Veda found herself unable to bid him adieu as well. He flicked his tongue along her slippery lips, and when he reached around her body to stroke her clit with his fingers as he worked, he fulfilled his promise.
He gave her a farewell that wasn’t filled with anger and vitriol, but one that left her spine bent, her pussy convulsing, and her lips screaming against the door that barely muffled her fervent cries of passion.
25
Veda often laughed at Jake and the inane things that had a habit of spilling from his mouth. Often accusing him of being a long-suffering victim of violent word vomit, she took a bulk of the words he said with a grain of salt. Only once in a blue moon did she find herself—usually in the dead of night—staring into space, in awe, as one of Jake’s tidbits that she’d brushed off hours, days, sometimes even weeks, earlier, proved nothing short of brilliant.
That was one of those nights.
As she found herself sneaking out of Linc’s bedroom in the middle of the night, tiptoeing up to the couch where he was sleeping like a baby, feeling like her heart was about two seconds from unhinging itself from her chest, she realized Jake’s brilliance had snuck up on her yet again.
She really should’ve spiked this Linc’s water at the bar earlier in the night. She should’ve done it because as she found herself watching his sleeping face, the slow rise and fal
l of his chest—where his bullet wound was almost completely healed—and the sporadic twitch of the hand he had slung over his stomach, she could only let her trembling fingers linger over the keys he’d left sitting on the coffee table next to the couch.
But she couldn’t make herself pick them up.
His snores were loud enough to drown out the ringing of the keys completely, but she still couldn’t bring herself to touch them. Her eyes fell to the keys, and her bright red nails, which shook mere inches above them. She fought for the courage to dip her finger into the ring and lift the keys as quietly as possible. Somehow, she found it, lowering her pointer finger slowly, the sharp tip of her nail millimeters away from sneaking under the key ring.
Then, Linc’s feet spasmed.
And so did Veda, biting back the curse that tried to leave her lips as her frantic gaze zoomed to the foot of the sofa.
She stared at his huge feet, hanging over the edge of the couch that was about ten feet too small for him, and waited until a full minute had passed with no movement. Until just his deep, even breathing, and the soft howl of wind from outside the balcony doors were the only noises there to keep her company. Until the wisps of brown hair that had fallen across his face were dancing along with the air wafting from his flared nostrils.
Then, she dipped her finger inside the key ring, exhaled sharply, checked Linc’s sleeping face once more, and lifted them—just a pinch.
The keys jingled.
She froze with a cringe.
Silence.
She waited once more for his deep breathing to fill the room, her pained eyes looking toward the half moon that blared a soft white spotlight into the otherwise pitch-black living room.
Squinting one eye closed, she lifted the keys a little more.
Jingles, jangles, clanks, tinkles! All filling the quiet air at once. Veda swore it sounded like a nuclear bomb going off, but Linc remained knocked out regardless.
Drumming up every ounce of courage she had, digging deep down for strength, she snatched the keys up from the table as fast as she could, trapping them in a fist before they had a chance to make too much noise.
Pulse (Revenge Book 5) Page 22
